“Hotel backyard”: hoteliers’ perspectives on hotel suicides

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the perspectives of hotel employees and managers on hotel suicide based on the opportunity theory. Using an exploratory qualitative research design to gain insights into undesirable events in hotels, the study examines the opinions, attitudes, and management skills of hoteliers in preventing suicide and coping with the after-effects. Face-to-face in-depth interviews were conducted with sixteen hoteliers in Denizli, Türkiye. Data collection included scenarios consisting of newspaper articles about hotel suicide cases. The findings demonstrated that hotels mostly meet their legal obligations, such as taking registration, checking identity, and sending instant identity reports to the police station. However, they rarely take preventive measures against suicidal events.

KEYWORDS:

• Hotel suicide
• opportunity theory
• deviant behaviour
• Denizli
• Türkiye

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Burçin Kırlar-Can

Burçin Kırlar-Can, Ph.D., received a BA degree in Tour Guiding and an MS in Turkish Art from Ege University, Türkiye. She also obtained MS and Ph.D. degrees in Tourism Management from Dokuz Eylul University, Türkiye. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Tourism, Pamukkale University, Türkiye. Her research areas include tourist behavior, crisis management and risk perception.

Mehmet Ertaş

Mehmet Ertaş, Ph.D., received a BA degree in Hospitality Management from Cukurova University, Türkiye; and MS and Ph.D. degrees in Tourism Management from Dokuz Eylul University, Türkiye. He is now affiliated with the Faculty of Tourism as an Assistant Professor at Pamukkale University, Türkiye. His main research interests focus on crisis management, tourism recreation, motorcycle users and tourism marketing.